Ken Kutaragi Demoted

Ken Kutaragi is also known as "Father of the PlayStation". He is the brains behind the Sony PlayStation brand such as the Playstation (PS), PlayStation2 (PS2), PSX (PS2 w/DVD recorder) and Sony's new handheld, PlayStation Portable (PSP).

Due to a management reshuffle last month at Sony, it put Howard Stringer in the chief executive's chair and Kutaragi was demoted. Not only was he demoted, he also lost his seat on Sony's board, but he still runs Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc., the company's game subsidiary.

It appears that the 54 year old, Ken Kutaragi, was demoted for being too outspoken and criticizing the company's decision.

"In January, he told the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Tokyo that fellow executives had been overly restrictive in controlling Sony content in a world where consumers of digital movies and music want hassle-free access."

Sony also has been hurt by its insistence on making its content proprietary, Kutaragi said.

"Some employees, he said, have been frustrated for years with management's reluctance to introduce products similar to Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod portable music player, mainly because Sony's music and movie units were worried about content rights."

"Indeed, Kutaragi's comments came about the same time that Sony decided to finally agree to support the open and widely used MP3 digital audio standard on its portable music players."

Though, Kutaragi is still in charge of SCE, what does this mean for the future of gaming related items since he doesnt have as much power to deligate as he use to?

Yahoo story

The company is going to keep him around, as evident by the apparent success (at least in Japan) of the PSP. They acknowledge that he's extremely important, especially with the upcoming release of the PS3. The reason for his demotion stems from Kutaragi's outspokeness (such as his criticism of Sony being too proprietary), or from the magnificent bombing that was the PSX (PS2 + DVD recorder).

This will only hurt Sony if Kutaragi quits from this decision. Otherwise, I think they'll be just fine (unless the CEO that they picked over Kutaragi screws up royally).

EDIT: Since Bandit edited his post to include the actual article, it made my summarizing post pointless. Anyway, Sony gaming is going to stay as it is because Kutaragi is still in charge. Had Kutaragi been selected as CEO, he would have devoted more time to fixing the other Sony problems than on the Playstation division.

He's hit a lot of things right on the money. It is amazing that as big of a company as Sony is, and as many entertainment products as they make, that each section of Sony doesn't work with one another. If Sony actually got its act together, and had each piece of the company working together and sharing technology, they would be ruling the world of home electronics and entertainment.

Queue the welcome to last month pic.

This was last month? The change in management was..but the demotion?

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Originally Posted by bandit

"In January, he told the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Tokyo that fellow executives had been overly restrictive in controlling Sony content in a world where consumers of digital movies and music want hassle-free access."

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Good job punishing the dude that's telling you exactly what you need to hear.

I totally understand Sony's reluctance though. I mean yeah, fighting it is just throwing wooden shoes into the gears, but supporting MP3 is fundamentally shooting themselves in the foot. It just happens that the leg was already blown off.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bandit

This was last month? The change in management was..but the demotion?

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Yeah, it happened at the same time. The outgoing CEO and his faction hated Kutaragi, so this was kind of a final fuck-you. Kutaragi leaving would be unlikely (where would he go?), but it'd be damn dramatic if he did.

If only they released Metal Slug 3....

Wow...I have to ratchet the respect-o-meter for him a up a bit.

He may be a bit insane, but he has the right idea on what consumers want from thier digital media.

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Originally Posted by salmonax

Kutaragi leaving would be unlikely (where would he go?)

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Nintendo. Kutaragi would be one of the few people who could reverse Nintendo's downward spiral that was created by Iwata.

Big companies often do things like that. They don't want to cannibalize their own stuff. But you'd think that when the competition is doing it, or going to do it, you might as well make your own iPod and get some of the money.

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Originally Posted by Revoltor

If only they released Metal Slug 3....

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:tu:

Sony has been stuck in this weird position for years. They cant find a balance between content providing and content playing. Because of that you get these horrible things like SonicStage and ATRAC.

Ken was obviously on the side of more open formats, but it looks like that side has lost within the Sony ranks. That bodes badly for Sony as time goes on.

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Originally Posted by StriderKyo

I totally understand Sony's reluctance though. I mean yeah, fighting it is just throwing wooden shoes into the gears, but supporting MP3 is fundamentally shooting themselves in the foot. It just happens that the leg was already blown off.

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Sony was one of the first company's to market CD burners and CD-Rs, even though their music and gaming businesses were CD-based.
Why? Maybe it's because of a lack of coordination between departments, or maybe they just figured that since so many other company's were going to profit from piracy, they might as well get in on the act, too and reclaim at least some of their losses.
Why they haven't done the same thing with MP3 is anybody's guess. It might have more to do with MP3 being inferior technology.